Arnold Schwarzenegger's Highs and Lows

schwarzenegger conan

Barbarian at the Gate

As his inevitable retirement from competitive bodybuilding approached, Arnold set his sights on Hollywood. He was repeatedly told that this was a hopeless goal, because of his inscrutable accent, his strange body, and his foreign name. During the 1970s, he did have some unmemorable parts. Stardom for Arnold would require the impossible: a leading-man role that required an absurdly chiseled physique and almost no dialogue. That role was, of course, 1982's "Conan the Barbarian," and it was a giant hit.